Vehicle lamp



Feb. 20, 1940. R. w. JOHN-SON VEHICLE; LAMP Filed Dec. 15, 1937 INVENTOR.

L Fwlllr ATTO EYs Patented Feb zg 1940' I ,1

uru'nzo s'rm ss PATENT OFFICE -2,191,278 i I I ymnoiis i Roy Johnson; Wyoming, Ohio o I Y Application Deoember13, 1937, Serial No. 179,44o

' 1 .01am." m1. arc-#413) The invention herein described is one especially designed with a primary object of producing a vehicle, lamp which is; a material factor in contributing to the safety of illumination from a'uto mobilelamps,

to exist because of structural ufacturing expediency. v

A 'further object is toproduce a vehicle lamp,

- the lens ofwhich will efie-ct material saving in the quantity of glass usually required for a lens of the type employed for automobile head lamps,

thereby reducing the weight of sucha lens-land also'decreasing its cost, as well as avoiding there which". the propagation of the light beam. there from is accomplished in a uniqueg manner through structural changes and cooperating lamp part placement, to develop a beam of increased power, efficiency and safety both as'to the driver of. the vehicle which is edui-ppedwith my'imp'roved lamp, as well as the driver ofa'vehicle approaching from an opposite direction.

Those and other objects are attained in the ve- ,hiole-lamp described in the following specificarefractions and reflections which occur relatively to the lens surface constituting important elements of the invention.

-In my improved lamp 1 contemplate employing the general type disclosed in Fig. l, in which the body H may be of conventional design, with a reflector i2 mount'ed therein, alamp bulb l3 supplying the light, and lens it closing the re'- fiector; The reflector l2 preferably is of parabolic form in order-that its parallelizi'ng effectsf onthe lightrays' maybe utilized. Thel'ens pref:

erably, although not necessarily, may be. of oon-' the mold, as has been described, an element of very grave danger, optically speaking, has been vex form in order that it may blend with the generally prevailing form cfb'odydesign being.

.employed'at this time.

" acteristics. both through their photometricand ocular detection. The presence i of 7 these characteristics .as to'light reflections and *refractions from surfaces and portions of the lamp lens which have necessity andj man- Fig. 211s a somewhat enlarged fragmental-seo tion of, a lens of the improved type of lamp shown in Fig. '1, disclosing. diagrammatically thellight Lenses for, such lamps heretofore-have constituted prismatic surfaces in' which the angularityof. the surfaces, essentially divergingly "down Wardly, create certainundesirable optical char- Such characteristics are observable constitutes ,one of the principal factors which have given lamp designers much trouble to overcome the glare and consequent danger as well as legaldifficulty incomplying-with the laws and regulations set up by the cities or states for the in the step-like surfaces of the short sides or fillers of the prismsgof the lens.

Since it is desirable to. have prismed areas the lens confinedto the back surfaces thereof, so that the front face presents arelatively smooth surface in order that it may be kept as clean as possible, the prisms are found on the Irearface.

' purpose of controlling such matters. The direct H cause of'the difficulties just'r'nentioned is found :5. o 1

This then gives rise to a problemin manufacture which is, overcome. only in one way. Because such a lens is made by pressing a'quantity of moltcn glas's withina concave mold so that it has a relatively smooth convex face such as pre-- sented inthe'lens shown, the plunger which is employed forthis'purpose is formed with the necessary' formations which will create the prismed concave surface of the lens. Since the prisms are distinguished from'eachother b-yoifsets or steps l5, it wouldbe impossible to form such steps with surfaces undercut or even aligned with the;

movement of the plunger because of sticking and other tendencies relatively to the plunger and its associated glassgblank which take place particularly along lines of suchacute and parallel angu- 40' -angle to the-di'rection of movement of the lensforming plunger. Thus ready separation of the plunger andglass surfacestakes place without I the completed-lens unuseable.

Now,"-in order that the reader ofthis speoificationniay the better understand a distinction which my invention has made over the usual lamp and lens structure, aswell as tounderstand.

the advantages obtained thereby, it "is pointed out that a lenshaving'the prisms thereof erranged in downwardly diverginglfaoe formation,

is common practice. In such a lens, employing the acutely: angular relationshipof the fillers'urfaces relatively to the direction of pressing, and

withdrawalmovements'of the forming plunger of ing the action of such filler surfaces in an ordinary lens, the reader is requestedfor the moment to turn the drawing upside down. It will be noted that the paths of. the light rays Hid as they emerge from the convex sideof the lens, after they have been acted upon by the filler surfaces 15a, are in an upward direction. Thus, this upwardly projected light creates a condition of glare whichat once gives rise to a problem as to how to dispose of the difficulty, because such a critical situation not only makes the lensdangerous, but

also causes the more stringent lighting enforcement regulations to refuse to sanction theuse of such lenses within territories so protected, much to the annoyance, expense and consequent loss ofboth the user and producer of. such lighting equipment.

Bynow referring to the drawing in rightside up position, the reader will observe that the ob- 203 jection to glare as produced in the usuallens construction which I have thus described above, has been overcome. For example, the filler surfaces will be seen to have inclination toward the direction from which the light is coming to enter 5 the lens. These surfaces thereforewill cause both refracted and reflected rays produced therefrom to take the paths of travel indicated respectively by 46a and Nib with relation to rays Hi. Certain reflected rays as Nib will result in rereflections li o as shown, but such rerefiections actually have little or no effect because of their relative Weakness and also because they do not enter the lens at all. I

I have aimed in the foregoing disclosure to 5.1-1show how I overcome the objectionable glare from the zones produced by the filler surfaces between the prisms of'the usual lens and I have shown how simply the radical change from imperfection to perfection can be obtained, but,

40 there are other advantages which this change "also has accomplished. One of these advantages is to be found inthe factthat the downwardly diverted light from the lens fillers may be employed very useably by allowing it to illuminate 45,,the roadway immediately in front of the car, ""whereas in previous structures such light has been unused and as well has constituted a source of great danger through its upwardly and wide spread zones of glaring'light. Still another fea- 5g ture of advantage both optically and as an item 'of cost saving aswell as weight saving, is found in the simple manner in which the zones produced by the filler surfaces of the lens may bev reduced in width by dividing .wide prism zones intotwo or more prismatic formations for each zone at present used, thereby enabling me, in my prismed formations into two or more for each 'usual prism width, the lens is thereby made less bulky because I am enabled tomake it of a much less thickness than heretofore, thereby causing it to function witha greater degree of efficiency 70 because of its having less light absorption than through a thick lens. Third, by being enabled to reduce the lens thickness in this manner, much glass is saved, thereby enabling me to effect a material saving in the cost of such a lens as compared with others of the usual type. Additionally, I may mention a fourth advantage which this saving in glass effects. I refer;to the decrease in weight of my lens as compared withone of the usual heavy glass type. All these features of novelty are attained in my improved lens without having to resort to such artifices as the well known subterfuges af actual coating or painting of the filler surfaces in orderto avoid glare therefrom, or of having to resort to some such equally obvious and well known methods of glare reduction as by fluting, stippling, roughening or otherwise' spreading or diffusing the light projected from such glaring filler surfaces.

Since, because of the particular construction of the lens I have just described-in which the prisms are approximately of from one to two and a half degree divergence or spread, it is obvious.

that horizontal and parallelrays of light l'la from the lamp reflector 12 would be projected through the lens prisms and thereby direct light therefrom in an upward direction 811 of approximately one to two and a half degrees from the lamp, in this manner defeating the good results obtained from the elimination of glare'fro-m the lens fillers Ilia, as has been described. Therefore, I incorporate .in.my'improved lamp the simple expedient of mounting the reflector so that its axis R occupies an acute angle of approximately two degrees, thereby directing the light rays both forward and downward with relation to the horizontal lamp axis, L, such that the substantially parallel rays i! from the reflector will strike the prismed inner surface of the lens and become refracted so as topasstherefrom as substantially horizontal rays 18 of a projected light beam from the lamp. In this manner the lamp and its lens may occupy a horizontal axial position and the beam projected therefrom also will be substantially horizontal, axially. of the lamp.

This constitutes a continuation in part of application Serial Number-81,715, covering a Lens for vehicle lamps, which I filed under, date of May 25, 1936.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:'

In combination with a vehicle, a lam comprising a body, a parabolic reflector within the body, a source of light substantially at the focus of the reflector, and a closure lens for the body, said lenscontaining inverted prisms on its inner face, whereby the baseof each is uppermost and occupies substantially horizontal placement, and fillers between the adjacent inner faces of the prisms, the surfaces of said fillers being substantially straight in transverse cross section and in clined to receive light from the reflector. the reflector axis occupying an angle to the prism faces such-that light projected through the prisms will be directed substantially nonparallel with the reflector axis, said filler surfaces transmitting light from the reflector and substantiallycrossing that transmitted by the prisms, and means mounting the lamp on the vehicle whereby when the prism-projected light lies substantially parallel with the vehicle axis, the filler-projected light will be directed substantiallyv toward the surface of the road over which the vehicle is traveling;

ROY W. JOHNSON. 

